Sometimes it can be fun to take your grill with you on a camping trip or to a friend’s house. But many of the most powerful grills for backyard cookouts are hard to move around due to their size or weight. Finding a portable grill that’s still powerful enough to feed your friends and family can be tricky. The Weber Q1200 grill manages to blend portability and power in a way you’ll love.
In our Weber q1200 review, we’ll go over what makes this grill a delight to use and why it would be a great choice for your next backyard cookout or camping trip.
Let’s get started!
Weber q1200 grill Review: In-Depth Overview
Key Features –
- Fully assembled: This grill comes already put together, meaning you can use it almost immediately.
- Porcelain-enameled cast-iron grates: These specially designed grates are both built to last and to make cooking your favorite foods even easier. These grates are super durable and are naturally resistant to food sticking to their surfaces.
- Cast-iron aluminum lid: This lid is one tough cover, capable of withstanding significant punishment before it buckles. It also keeps heat inside the grill quite capably.
- Easy-start electronic ignition: It takes almost no time at all to begin cooking your favorite meals thanks to the easy start electronic ignition. No more messing with flint or firelighters just to start your cookout.
- Infinite control burner valve: You have as much precision control as you want when it comes to fine-tuning your meals. You’ll be able to master exactly how much heat you bring to bear on your favorite meats and vegetables with this control.
- Grease management system: Keeping your workspace clean is easy thanks to the grease management system. Any grease or oil from your favorite foods will drip into this handy container, making it easy to dispose of that grease when you’re finished cooking.
Pros
- Very easy to use immediately
- Offers fine cooking control
- Lots of space for preparing dishes
- Main chassis is very durable
Cons
- Side tables aren’t super sturdy
- Handle can get hot at times
Remember to turn the grill completely off when replacing the liquid propane cylinder!
Specifications –
- 8500 BTU per hour
- 24.6” x 40.9” x 20.5” dimensions expanded
- AAA batteries
- Uses 14.1 or 16.4 oz LP gas cylinders
What Makes the Q1200 Great?
The Q1200 is a phenomenal grill for cookouts of all levels. Its primary excellence comes from its versatility and durability.
For starters, it can produce 8500 BTUs of heat, which is enough to capably cook food all across its 189 in.² total cooking area. This cooking space is enough to feed several people at once, making it an ideal grill for smaller cookouts or to handle making food for your family on a camping trip.
Speaking of camping, it’s easy to move this grill from place to place since it’s not too heavy and features balanced feet. These feet ensure that it will remain stable even if you place it on an uneven picnic table.
Using the grill is also quite easy since you can take advantage of the easy ignition start button. So long as you can provide the grill with gas, it’ll start up immediately as soon as you hit this button. You won’t have to waste time or energy fiddling with igniters or lighting your own fire. Just hit the switch and go.
You can also control the exact heat brought to bear on your favorite foods through the infinite control burner valve. This burner valve doesn’t have preset notches. Instead, you turn the valve left or right along an infinite dial to give you the ultimate temperature control you’ve always wanted. This makes it easy to make stakes or burgers to the exact specifications of your guests or family.
The grill takes disposable 14.1 or 16.4 oz LP cylinders, which are easy to find and carry with the rest of your supplies. These small cylinders don’t take up a lot of extra space and allow you to use the grill even on crowded tables or cooking surfaces.
Its durability is also quite exceptional. This grill is reinforced with a glass nylon frame and a cast aluminum cooking lid and body. All of these materials afford the grill a lot of inner strength. Rest assured that it can handle the trip to the campsite and significant wear and tear before it’ll start showing signs of stress.
Then there are a pair of extendable side tables you can use whatever you like. These give you a little extra space to place condiments or other cooking materials to assist you as you grill. Fold them back up once you’re done and you can easily carry the grill once again.
To makes things even better, this grill is already assembled when it’s shipped to your door. As soon as it arrives you can start using it so long as you have some gas cylinders to spare. All in all, it’s a phenomenal piece of cooking technology that has everything you could need for a family-sized portable grill.
If your grill isn’t getting very hot, check the propane cylinder as it may need to be replaced.
How Portable Is It?
The Q1200 is quite portable once you fold up the side tables on either end of the grill. These tables are easy to extend or collapse depending on whether you need them at a particular moment. Once folded, you can grip the grill from the curved handles at the front and back.
Just be sure to only pick it up after you’ve given the grill enough time to cool down!
The grill only weighs 29.1 pounds, so it’s not too heavy to carry from place to place. Keep in mind that it doesn’t have wheels or any other locomotive aspects, so you’ll have to physically lift and set it down whenever you want to adjust its position.
Who Is It Best For?
This grill is ideally suited for small families or for groups of friends who want to take a camping trip. It’s not as heavy-duty or high-powered as truly industrial grills design for larger backyard cookouts. But it’s easy to move and use, and it gives you a lot of control over the cooking process and your workspace. Because of all these aspects, it’s a particularly great grill for chefs that like control and precision when they work.
How To Clean Up the Weber Q1200?
Cleaning the Weber Q1200 is quite easy. Because it uses porcelain-enameled cast-iron cooking grates, your food is not likely to stick to the grates very frequently. Simply use a grill brush to get rid of any fat or animal grease that might still be on the grates after cooking.
Both grease and this residue should fall down into the grease management system, which rests beneath the main body of the grill. You can then dispose of all this junk by removing the system and dumping it into a trash can.
We’d recommend using a brush to rub a small amount of cooking oil over the grates to finish the cleaning process. This will help the grill smell fantastic and prevent any lingering residue from hardening over time.
Setting Up the Weber q1200
Since the Weber Q1200 is already preassembled out of the box, all you need to do is insert a gas cylinder and it’s ready to go. Make sure the burner control knob is turned off before inserting the cylinder. Then simply push the propane cylinder into the regulator on the left-hand side of the grill and turn it clockwise until the seal tightens. Turn on your Q1200 grill whenever you want to start cooking!
Remember to clear out the grease management system each time you use the grill. This prevents it from overflowing during your next cookout!
Weber q1200 vs q2200
The Weber Q2200 costs more than the Q1200 and boasts 280 in.² of cooking space to make it a better choice for making larger meals. It also features a stainless steel burner that can put out 12,000 BTUs of heat per hour. But otherwise, they’re mostly the same grill. The Q2200 is basically a larger and hotter version of the Q1200.
Read Our article Weber q2200 Review
Weber q1000 vs q1200
The Q1000 is almost exactly the same as the Q1200, only the former doesn’t have the expandable side tables that had a lot of versatility to the Q1200. Otherwise, they’re essentially the same grill, although of course, the Q1000 weighs slightly less.
Learn More about Weber q1000 Review
FAQ’s about q1200 weber
#1. How Long Do Propane Tanks Last with This Grill?
A 14.1 or 16.4 oz LP tank will normally last between three or four hours when used with this grill.
#2. What is the Q1200 Portable Cart?
This is an optional accessory you can purchase to rest the Q1200 grill on top of. It is a rolling cart with wheels that lets you easily maneuver the grill across a backyard or other flat spaces.
#3. What Surfaces Are Best for This Grill?
It’s designed for tabletop use because it gets pretty hot. You can use it on a truck tailgate or a countertop but do not place a flammable cloth beneath it just to be safe.
All in all, the Weber Q1200 reviews and specifications prove that it’s a phenomenal piece of cooking equipment that’s ideal for BBQ fanatics and household chefs of all kinds. It provides plenty of cooking power no matter what kind of meal you want to provide your friends and family and is easy to move even though it doesn’t have wheels. As long as you always have a can of liquid propane fuel handy, you’ll always be cooking!
Thanks for reading!